Show Reviews

Set 1: After opening with a Classic Groove that could have been imported out of 1992 (although, perhaps, with somewhat less light-speed vigor than a typical 92 Groove), the band decides to pull Tweezer out of their bag of tricks, and you might usually expect a first set Tweezer to serve more as a way to stretch their legs with an extended Type I jam. Well, you’d be wrong, hypothetical Phish fan I invented for this review, as after some laid-back Tweezer grooving Page gently shoves the band into a sparkling major-key jam (and takes point on piano, to boot), a lovely and welcome surprise with some powerful Trey soloing at the end to get one’s fist pumping even listening back on a mobile device, especially when they wind their way back home and really drag out the old-school ending. Ass Handed is a hilarious follow up (as it usually is), and a relaxed and casually stretched out Gin, surprise slowed-down Brother, and now-firmly-installed Set 1 closer More help make this a standout first frame even in a year where first frames were no slouches.

Set 2: Let’s break this down into a few thoughts:

- That is straight up setlist porn.
- Disease quickly heads towards darker waters as both Trey and Mike go to their effects and Page’s synths (one of the biggest game changers of AT LEAST the modern era) meld wonderfully with them. A warmer groove emerges at Mike’s insistence (Mike has definitely been the MVP of the run, especially in the last two very-good-but-not-this-show shows), and Fish starts strutting his stuff as the jam begins to grow in power and Trey goes to the really beautiful part of his soloing range. After a brief dalliance back with the dark side, nearly Phrygian in its minor-key growliness, Trey decisively shifts into Rock God mode and Fish shifts to a new gear. And when I say new gear, I mean it - this is a glorious, almost Reading-esque jam of true joy, Trey tapping into his prodigious gifts and Page matching him on piano while Mike and Fish urge them along to a wonderful peak. They drop down to a stop-start range and goose some woos (you know, the audience participation the band asks for every 7-8 shows that everyone can’t stop grousing about), and then Trey latches onto Steam’s opening notes and we get a neat segue to finish. So yeah, between this one and the astonishing Dick’s version, to paraphrase John Wick, I’m thinking Disease is back.
- Speaking of Steam, it’s really made its bones as a Set 2 vehicle at this point, and this version might be the strongest of them all. After a powerful rendition of the song proper, a psychedelic and straight-up weird fog of noise emerges, and I started expecting some gruesome shit along the lines of the BD Caspian. But Fish decides to wander over to the Marimba Lumina instead, and what develops is a truly interesting Space straight out of a Brian Eno album, ghostly effects sliding in and out of the fray (again, gotta love Page’s synths here) and Trey adding some clanging notes. It’s not quite dark, and not quite blissful upbeat hose - in this year of deep exploration, it’s something else entirely, and I’d like some more of that, please.
- Light is a superb call, and while this Light never really quite gets going and is curtailed for Farmhouse just when they’d apparently latched onto a Mike-driven alien hip-hop groove reminiscent of 7/14/13’s standout Light, the resulting Farmhouse is a really quite strong version with a truly lovely Trey solo that works as a palate cleanser after 50-ish minutes of high-class improv. Oh, and Trey decides to stir it up with his teases at the end, cough cough.
- Antelope is like pizza for me - even if it’s “bad”, it’s still good. And this version is certainly not a bad one, a worthy capper to the 4th (!!) 5-song set of 2017.
- Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise: hey, if it’s good enough for 12/6/97 II, it’s good enough for me.

Final thoughts: every NYE run (maybe not 2011) has one absolute stone-the-crows Monster Show that we talk about in hushed tones after the fact. So here’s all I’ll say - if this one is NOT the Monster Show of 2017, then 12/31 will have blown our skulls clean out of our ears.

12/30 can be a special place. This one definitely has a seat at the table as one of the best. No song was misplaced. Everything was taken to the limit and nobody left the garden unhappy. From the opening Mike’s to the reprise veryrhing was played with deliberate precision. Hard not to have an absolute blast.

It doesn’t happen often but tonight was a ‘just press play’ it truly doesn’t get any better.

A killer, killer night. The boys came to play and were swinging for the fences from note one. I can’t recall this kind of vibe of the door being opened to any possibility so quickly since 11-22-97 and 12-30-97. It had that kind of massive feel to it.

I’m convinced that the Mike’s opener and the slow Brother were gifts to Mike as he’s been playing so well this run. Really great to hear him so excited.

Can’t wait to see what tonight brings! For the time being I’ll sit back with a huge smile on my face for the rest of the day!

Confession. I'm a n00b. This was only my 3rd time seeing Phish, my first 2 shows being Jimmies and Boston Cream. So I've yet to catch a less-than-stellar show.

We were seated behind the stage, Page side. Not the worst seats in the house, but not the best. But hey, if I'm in the room and I can hear, I'm good. Put me anywhere.

I'm partially deaf and have a Cochlear implant in my deaf ear. Music sounds much different in the Cochlear, and some notes and tones are really astonishing. I can't explain it, but they are. "I Am Hydrogen" contains those kinds of sounds (as do Bathtub Gin, Ocelot, and a few other tunes). So to witness the only Mike's Groove with Hydrogen of 2017 was a special treat. So here we are, a few minutes into the night and already a highlight has emerged. Now, there was no major mind-blowing craziness in Mike's Groove, but it was solid all the way around.

My 3rd show, my first Tweezer. YAY! Not a bad one at all. Went deep, got weird, explored some funky places before coming back around to the main theme and winding down, then Trey steps back and says something to Fishman and BOOM! we get a smokin' "Ass Handed". Ok. I jest. I mean, it was as good as any version of Ass Handed... whatever that means. A pretty standard KDF came next. There are those who don't like this song, but I'm not among them. Being a yellow balloon type, I can relate to the "this time will be different, til I do it again" thing.

This Bathtub Gin is a must-hear moment. They got everything right. It hit al the right places, danced into some slightly unusual territory (nowhere too crazy, but unusual enough to make it interesting and memorable).. Brother was a little rusty and the playing was sketchy in places, but I ain't complaining. It was good enough and it had the groove, so, it works. Besides, they hadn't played it in 5 years, so all is forgiven.

"More" wrapped up the first set.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Didn't go anywhere new, but that's okay. I like the song, and while I don't think it'll ever evolve into a jam vehicle, it's a solid composition, and a song that needs to be heard.

Ok.... this second set is something you just gotta hear. This is one of those legendary 5-song second sets that will stand up strong against any second set in the 3.0 era. The DWD could be the best jam of 2017, and that's saying a lot. Clocking in at 89 seconds shy of half an hour, the performance goes type II and touches on a bunch of themes, with sections that are not unlike "The Wheel" (Grateful Dead) and the VU's "Rock n Roll".
I wondered if they might not be going into RNR a couple of times, they'd get real close, then steer away into another part of the jam. Eventually things got really, really dark before ultimately giving way to Steam. But before it did that the jam got a little "WHOO!" section going on (for better or worse). (Whether you are pro or anti "WHOO!", you gotta admit, it doesn't just show in the pedestrian jams, it only appears in those top-notch crazy jams that go yonder and beyonder)

The post-Disease jam flows smoothly into a "Steam" that takes the dark tone set up in the DWD jam and goes a little bit deeper, and the fog machines on stage add an extra dimension to the tune.. Things can't stay in the dark forever, and Steam gives way to "Light". I'm not a huge fan of Light, but I don't dislike it. Y'know what I mean? There are songs that I don't not like, but that usually aren't on my list of tunes I wanna hear at a show Light is one of those. But this one is well placed and well played, and ultimately a necessary vehicle for getting out of the dark space created by the DWD jam. Then the curveball... Farmhouse. Who the hell saw that coming? It was a great Farmhouse, odd positioning be damned. The "No Woman No Cry" jam in the middle was inspired and well-played and yeah, I know Farmhouse and No Woman No Cry are musically the same, I was just kidding.

Then Antelope to close the set. I love this fucking jam, and that moment when it drops from the intro into the main theme? Pure damn rock n roll magic. What can you say? nothing. It just kicks ass.
It's Antelope.
Set the gear shift to the high gear of your soul, indeed.

After such an outstanding show, what could the encore be? Why, the world's greatest singalong about masturbation that contains copious Let It Be quotes, what else? Sleeping Monkey put a nice bow on everything, and included the obligatory a capella section from Henrietta.

And then, the Tweeprise, the obvious call to send us home into the 18 degree weather... because yeah, the east coast is in the midst of a serious cold snap right about now... highs in the 20's, good times.

So that's it... my last Phish show of 2017. I"ll be watching the NYE stream, of course, and enjoying the hell out of every note. This has been a really special year for the band and their fans. The music has been top notch all the way through (except for Dick's, which wasn't bad, it just wasn't BD). Rumors about and maybe I'll be able to see this band somewhere other than MSG. I'm on this train now, so we'll see where it goes.

Seamless and transcendent. This was Phish at their best right now. There wasn't a breather in the early night. Some segue fests aren't always as good live as they look on paper, but this one was near perfection. An old familiar friend in the Groove. The first Tweezer, I believe, to come out from there. Fun times with Jon, and then Trey slaying KDF. Add a Gin I will listen to many many more times and my long lost Brother and you have the makings of a 'special' set.

DWD...28 minutes. The number doesn't really matter. It was mostly straight up for the first half and I expected a Carini or Taste to come in and move things along. But then the wildest thing happened. Trey found something in the major-scales that he liked, and things just kind of went from there. It was a beautiful and ultimately extremely climatic performance....every note he pushed at the fans, they pushed back.

So, so far so good..and then Steam and Light go deep too...some new sounds, or at least new to me. Haunting and familiar at the same time. At this point I'm not sure what they have been doing in practice, or if this was just one of those all-cylinders clicking on new idea thing, but I was mesmerized. Farmhouse was necessary, and kudos to Trey for completely doing a true homage to No Woman No Cry there. Antelope, because why the hell not??

Soooo....let's just get this out of the way first. I, uh, was the guy who nailed Trey in the back with a glow stick after Gin. My bad amigo.
Sets can look better on paper than they are in real life. This first set is probably one of those, if for no other reason than, on paper, it looks like the greatest set of all time. The band sounded great. Focused. Loose. I like my phish dirty and most of the jamming in the first set seemed intent on going to that I-IV style they love so much in 3.0 (tweezer, carini, etc). With gin especially, it felt as though the peaks were all perfunctory- we could hear them coming a mile away and it felt a little repetitive. That having been said, if you're going to complain about that first set, you should probably find another band.
The second set is a great example of how great phish can be. I'll be honest when I say I'm tired of hearing disease openers and I never really liked light that much at all...AND YET, they used those songs to put together one of the best second sets I've ever heard. Funny how the multiple part disease smasher concluded with some woos ala the Tahoe Tweezer. If you want your phish evil and weird, look no further than the jam after steam. Those minute jams are why we fly and continue to shell out the cash we do. Even antelope, which probably shows the band's age moe than any other song, raged tonight. The concrete floors were swaying. What a great night. What an exploratory set with fantastic energy. Bravo Phish!

What can you do with a Mike's Song opener? Followed by I Am Hydrogen for the first time in a while? Then Tweezer >'s out of Weekapaug Groove for the first time ever... Tweezer jams well in the first set, and I appreciate that. Ass Handed out of the jam is a bit unhinged to start out. The other big things of note in this show's first set are a Bathtub Gin that bubbles under for several minutes before peaking satisfactorily, and then a slow Brother which is an interesting take upon that song's usual frenetic energy. Down with Disease to open the second set is certainly a long version, but it winds around towards yet another bliss jam, and I'm really over the whole bliss jam thing as long as Trey is gan'na play in virtual half time, if you know what I mean. Thoroughly exciting, though, is the synth-led coda to Steam (one of the first true jams out of that song) that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Page's new synthesizer palette has been well-integrated into Phish's 2017 sound--and hopefully further. That's about it for this show, which I feel merits 4 out of 5 stars. I really think Trey would behove the sound of the band by leaps and bounds if he would reintegrate some of his fabled "shredding" style from circa 1994 into the current melange, or maybe just even find something non-electronic to do with himself that would contribute to the sound as a whole in a more drastic way than his current arguable rut.

I was going to skip this show, but decided to couch tour it at the last minute. A little nagging voice in my ear reminded me that 12/31 was usually a pretty good date for a show. Not counting side projects, I think this was the 48th show I've attended or couch toured.

The show opens with Mikes>Hydrogen>Groove. The first 30 seconds or so seemed a little 'off' and then wham, off we go. Very nice version. I'm thinking smart move Ziggy, deciding to catch this. Boom: Tweezer. Are you kidding me? Almost twenty minutes of fantastic jamming. Forty minutes in I'm hoping, please don't implode. No, a stanky Ass Handed. Sung and played with gusto. Only 90 seconds or so, butt...... Into a Sweet KIll Devils Falls which flows into a fifteen minute Gin. Not the best of Gins, but a very sweet one. The set continues with another surprise, Brother. Eight minutes of delicious funk. The set ends with More. A personal favorite song. An absolutely fantastic first set.

Second set: Opens with thirty minutes of Down With Disease. Perhaps the finest version I've ever seen. Really impressive. All the band functioning as one. Wow this was a great version. Very very very nice transition (at least I thought so) into Steam. Almost fifteen minutes of an exceptional version of this song. Light emerges from the Steam. Very nice version. I like Light. No idea why. So I'm still really really happy with the set. Farmhouse follows. Not a perfunctory version, but a well executed, well sung version. Solid. The second set ends with a nice twelve minute Antelope. Compared to the rest of the set, almost disappointing. Almost.

Encore is Sleeping Monkey. Another song that tickles my fancy. They are having fun. Tweezer Reprise ends the night.

For me on the couch, I thought this was the best show I'd seen since Watkins Glen a few years back. No apologies. We all experience these shows differently, but this show was SO superior to the night before, it was like watching a different band. So glad I changed my mind. Give this shows many listens. It will not disappoint over time.

I'm just over here wondering why Phish.net isn't crediting the numerous "Homeward Bound" (Simon & Garfunkel) teases that Trey laced every show with. Just off the top of my head, see the 8:20 mark in "Light" from this show. I know there were others. But as good as this show was, it doesn't nearly touch Jam Night or Powdered Night from the Baker's Dozen, not to mention the last 3 of the BD. I actually enjoyed 12/29/17 even more, but that was probably a result of environment.

Solid show and great playing by the boys! Was not there but couched it being 2000 miles away. Solid playing in the first and second sets. Tweezer had some fun and fresh spots to it, along with the Disease>Steam in the second half of the show. Not a huge fan of the slowed down brother, but was an interesting and fun approach by the Phab Phour. Huge improvement from previous night IMO, really leaps and bounds. One thing still eludes me however . . . . . . . this show's ranking. Question for the masses here, which Im sure I will catch hell for on the .net as of late. How does this show rank higher than say, 12/29/97, 12/29/98 and is just a smidgeon ranked lower than 12/30/97 (by increments)? I understand we are talking different era's here, but if you listen to either of the previous mentioned with this night, they blow this show away by a longshot. Twenty years later, I guess Im still upside down.

Seamless and transcendent. This was Phish at their best right now. There wasn't a breather in the early night. Some segue fests aren't always as good live as they look on paper, but this one was near perfection. An old familiar friend in the Groove. The first Tweezer, I believe, to come out from there. Fun times with Jon, and then Trey slaying KDF. Add a Gin I will listen to many many more times and my long lost Brother and you have the makings of a 'special' set.

DWD...28 minutes. The number doesn't really matter. It was mostly straight up for the first half and I expected a Carini or Taste to come in and move things along. But then the wildest thing happened. Trey found something in the major-scales that he liked, and things just kind of went from there. It was a beautiful and ultimately extremely climatic performance....every note he pushed at the fans, they pushed back.

So, so far so good..and then Steam and Light go deep too...some new sounds, or at least new to me. Haunting and familiar at the same time. At this point I'm not sure what they have been doing in practice, or if this was just one of those all-cylinders clicking on new idea thing, but I was mesmerized. Farmhouse was necessary, and kudos to Trey for completely doing a true homage to No Woman No Cry there. Antelope, because why the hell not??

NICE! Glad to be proven overall wrong.. .i spoke to soon and ive never been happier to be so wrong w the overall NYE run
Steam is my girls favorite song she hates phish but loves wolves so she likes that one and a few others she tolerates like Antelope so this woulda been a great show to take the wife too. . Sleeping Monkey Lizards and MFMF are my personal top 3

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